Arlington County Public Schools: Desegregation Material 1954-1976.
(Realia)

This collection is arranged into eight subgroups and within each subgroup into series. The subgroups and series are all based on the original order of the material using the titles on the individual files. Within each subgroup the series are arranged alphabetically, within each series the files are also arranged alphabetically, and within each file the documents are arranged chronologically.

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RG 69 contains information related to the integration of Arlington County Public Schools including the history, redistricting, pupil distribution, and boundary maps.

In the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education case, the Supreme Court declared the policy of segreated schools unconstitutional. In the face of this ruling and its implication for the integration of schools throughout the United States, many in Virginia attempted to block the desegregation of Virginia's public schools. Governor Lindsey Almond decided to adopt a plan called massive resistance. Massive resistance rejected integration and proposed that rather than submitting to integration Virginia close the public schools. The Arlington County School Board had devi sed a three-year integration plan. Massive resistance forced Arlington to alter this plan. Many Arlingtonians opposed massive resistance. As school districts voiced opposition to closing their schools, massive resistance failed. Arlington integrated its first school on February 2, 1959. The desegration of all of Arlington's school would not be completed until 1971.

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